Jewish and Christian "Hijab" II

PART TWO- CHRISTIAN HIJAB

بِسْمِ اللّهِ الرَّحْمـَنِ الرَّحِيم

I am writing this post (part two of two parts) to illustrate WHAT was revealed to the Jewish and Christian women in terms of hijab, so that we as Muslims can better understand what things we were commanded to do in addition to differentiate ourselves from the practices of the Jews (which the Qu'ran states incurred Allah subhahu wa ta'ala's wrath) and the Christians (who went astray), صِرَاطَ الَّذِينَ أَنعَمتَ عَلَيهِمْ غَيرِ المَغضُوبِ عَلَيهِمْ وَلاَ الضَّالِّين . Muslims and so-called Muslim scholars need to understand, that just because the majority of Christians and Jews have stopped wearing the hijab THEY are compelled to put on by THEIR deen, doesn't mean that Muslims can leave off the clear recomendations for our hijab in the Qu'ran , many of which the Prophet salla Allahu alaihi wa-sallam explained in various ahadith were for modesty, and to clearly differentiate ourselves from the practices of the Jews and the Christians, which were altered to suit mankind's whims in their histories. Ours are not to be. There are many documents of survivng dress that document what Jewish and Christian women wore throughout history, and some surviving practioners of their hijabs. This post is about the fard requirements of Jewish and Christian hijab. InshaAllah you will find it interesting.

Is Covering the Hair a Religious Commandment for Christian Women?
There can be only one answer to this: yes, it is! The custom of wearing the veil was maintained in the primitive Churches of God. (1Cor.11:16). We see this in the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians. The women of Corinth beset by modern sensibilities, started coming to church without their heads covered. When Paul heard of their neglect, he wrote and urged them to keep the veil. According to Jerome’s commentary Bible, he finally settled the matter by saying head covering was a custom of the primitive communities of Judea, "the Churches of God" (1 Thess.2-14, 2Thess.1-4), which had received this Tradition from early times (2 Thess. 2:15. 3:6). Simply open the Bible to the First Epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 11. Read verses 3-10.

(Corintians, Chapter 11:3-10): "But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ and the head of the woman is the man, and the head of Christ is God. Every man praying or prophesying with his head covered, disgraces his head. But every woman praying or prophesying with her head uncovered disgraces her head, for it is the same as if she were shaven. For if a woman is not covered, let her be shaven. But if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut off or her head shaved, let her cover her head. A man indeed ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God. But woman is the glory of man. For man was not created for woman, but woman for man. This is why the woman ought to have a sign of authority over her head, because of the angels."

The meaning of this passage is plain enough. We can make the following syllogisms:
Syllogism 1
Praying with an uncovered head is a disgrace
Having a shaved head is the same as praying with an uncovered head
Therefore, having a shaved head is a disgrace
Syllogism 2
If it is a disgrace for a woman to have a shaved head, she should cover her head
It is a disgrace for a woman to have a shaved head - see syllogism 1
Therefore, a woman should cover her head

In other words, the passage means what it says. Have you ever wondered why Catholic nuns dress like they're wearing hijab (Muslim hijabi women, have you ever been mistaken for a nun? I have, more than once). Have you ever wondered why Mary the mother of Jesus (peace be upon them both) is always depicted in Christian art with her hair covered? Did you know that until the 1960s, it was obligatory for Catholic women to cover their heads in church (then they "modernized" the service)?

There are some interesting points that can be made about the Christian directive.
1) The explicit purpose of the Christian woman's headcovering, as stated by Paul, is that it is a sign of man's authority over woman. The explicit purpose of Islamic and Judaic hijab is modesty. Strange how so many Westerners think that the purpose of hijab is a symbol of male authority. Maybe they know that that's what it is in their own religion (Christianity) so they assume that Islam must be the same...!

2) The Christian woman is to cover her head whenever she is praying, whether it be at the church service or just personal prayer at home. This may mean that if she is not praying at home, she is uncovered around male guests who are not related to her; or if she is praying at home, that she is covered around her own husband and family. If any more proof were needed than Paul's own words that the Christian headcovering is not about modesty, this must certainly be it!

This puts hijab in a whole new perspective, doesn't it! To my non-hijabi Muslim sister who feels that hijab is a sign of oppression for the Muslim female, please do read the above and then read the Q'uran. Believe me, if Allah subhanhu wa ta'ala meant for hijab to be a sign of male authority, the Q'uran would be as unambiguous about it as Paul is in the Bible. Isn't this difference the kind of thing that attracted you to Islam in the first place?

Some Christians will argue that the context of covering is a spiritual one (as Oum Amir tried to in the previous post on Jewish hijab) but that is negated by statements from Paul and ayahs (verses) from Titus. We should "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things" (Titus 2:10). Christians sometimes hear that verse misinterpreted as meaning that they are to adorn themselves with the doctrine of God. Adorn means "to decorate; to deck or ornament; to set off to advantage" (Webster's Dictionary). It is "the doctrine of God our Saviour" that is to be adorned (decorated or decked), not ones self. Christians are to adorn "the doctrine of God our Saviour" with "good works" (Titus 2:7), and holiness (I Peter 1:15 and II Peter 3:11) in all things:

I (Peter 1:15-16) says: But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.

II(Peter 3:11) says: Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness[?]

Being "holy in all manner of conversation" includes what one says, what ones does, AND how one looks because appearence is the first of all communications! In Christianity each person should serve faithfully in the role that God has assigned. Men should be men, women should be women, Jesus' congregations should be Jesus' kind of congregations (as Muslims are not to resemble the non-muslims). Men should look like men, women should look like women, Christians should look like Christians "as unto the Lord." Ironically, during the crusades, Christian clothing and nun's habits were evolved to look more like a Muslim woman's, as they adopted our way of wearing the khimar, so that it covers the chest, though Christian women were only comanded to cover the hair.

Scripture sacred to the Christians presents several reasons for wearing the veil. Paul tells us in his first letter to the Corinthians (11: 1-16) that Christian women must cover their heads because it is a Sacred Tradition commanded by God Himself and entrusted to Paul: "The things I am writing to you are the Lord’s commandments" (1Cor. 14:37).
Christian women also were told to be ready with their bridal veils, waiting for the return of the Messiah and the promised wedding (Apoc.22:17), following the example of Mary/Meryem, who never appeared before the eyes of men but properly veiled.
Some Christians argue that hair is a woman's veil because Paul says in Corinthians: ...Judge for yourselves; is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not nature itself teach you that for a man to wear long hair is degrading to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her pride? For her hair is given to her for a covering... that a woman's hair is to be her veil, and that this verse simply prohibits a woman from cutting her hair and states that she must grow it out long. Note: any Christians who do not believe in wearing the veil, must thus believe that cutting the hair any shorter than the shoulder blades is prohibited or else they completely reject their scripture rather than plainly misinterpret it which I feel is the case, backed up by early Christian art, or Roman art portraying "Christian" dress---the dress of the followers of Isa alahi wa salaam. Paul is not prohibiting hair styles here. To focus on hair styles is to miss the point. Paul is simply asking a few rhetorical questions based on popular culture. In most cultures women have longer hair then men, and when they do, it usually looks better. He's saying that when a woman has long hair it usually looks beautiful, and when a man has long hair (which something associated in scriptures with the Nazarenes), it usually looks a little odd. In some cultures, long hair is considered a sign of femininity. So if a man has long hair, it looks feminine in those cultures, and that is "degrading" to him. What Paul is doing here is he's appealing to nature. He's saying; "Look, even mother nature teaches us the same lesson. She gives women long hair as a covering and it looks good and proper on them." Then he concludes with this interesting verse... ...If any one is disposed to be contentious, we recognize no other practice, nor do the churches of God. Some Bible versions have mistranslated this verse to say "we recognize no such practice, nor do the churches of God." This mistranslation is often used to negate the previous first half of the chapter. In other words, those who abuse such mistranslations say that Paul spent half a chapter, explaining a deep theological principle pertaining to a custom he applauds the Corinthians for keeping, only to say in this last verse that they really don't need to keep it. Such interpretations are silliness. The proper translation is rendered here as "we recognize no other practice." Here Paul is telling the Corinthians not to get too contentious over the chapel veil custom, because he's not going to burden them with anything else beyond that. He's not going to tell men and women how to dress. He's not going to tell them what kind of a veil they should wear, or how they should wear it like Pharises did---this Isa alahi wa salaam railed against! He's simply saying that this is the custom as it is practiced in the "churches of God" and they recognize no other practice beyond this. That a woman has to cover her hair, especially for prayer. He says it is a shame for a woman to be shaved bald (because it was a cultural statement that shaved women were shamed and women with long hair beautiful), and the woman that does not veil her hair, should be shaved bald (he is not commanding this but using another example from popular culture where women were shaved bald to be publically humiliated for indecent and immoral behaviour), i.e. he is saying it should be seen by the Christian women, that not veiling the hair is as much a shame as being bald so they should continue the practice of covering/veiling their hair.

HOW DO WE KNOW THAT HAIR ITSELF IS NOT THE COVERING?

As Muslims well know with translations of the Qu'ran, translations are a tricky lot, and with English versions of the Bible, we are dealing with a translation or a translation of a translation of what might have been something similiar to what came after Isa alahi wa salaam. Corinthians 11:6,7 used the word "veil". This is the only place in the New Testament that this Greek word is used. Therefore it is important that we don’t lean too heavily on one person’s definition for the word. There are four different Greek words used here in 1 Corinthians 11 in referring to covering the head. In addition there are a number of other Greek words used throughout the New Testament that mean to cover or to veil. The four Greek words used in this passage are:

1. Covered (verse 4) – #2596 κατά kata
2. Covered ( verses 6,7) – #2619 κατακαλύπτω katakaluptō
3. Covering (verse 15) – #4018 περιβόλαιον peribolaion
4. Uncovered (verses 5,13)– #177 ακατακάλυπτος akatakaluptos

It is important to note that in commanding a woman to cover her head, the verse did not use one of two other Greek words that are used in the New Testament that clearly mean to cover the face.

Cover - #4028 περικαλύπτω perikaluptō to cover all around, that is, entirely (the face, a surface): - blindfold, cover, overlay. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. This Greek word is used in Mark 14:65 “And some began to spit on him, and to cover his face, and to buffet him, and to say unto him, Prophesy: and the servants did strike him with the palms of their hands.”

Veil - #2571 κάλυμα kaluma a cover, that is, veil: - vail. Strong's Greek Dictionary. This word is used in 2 Corinthians 3:13 “And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:”

If God would have intended Christian women to cover their face, He would have made it clear by using one of these other words. It WAS a Jewish practice for married Jewish women of a certain social status to fully veil themselves, but not a Biblicial or Judaic commandment for women of either peoples. Another indicator (from this history and archeology student's veiw) that God is not (nor was Paul) requiring women to cover their face is that pictures of the early church show women with veils that do not cover the face.

For the very misguided Christian opinion that "Long hair is the covering": This comes from two things: a misinterpretation of verses 13-15, and an erroneous footnote in the New International Version. Verse fifteen does not say that long hair is given for a covering; it says that her hair (long or not) is given to her for a covering and because of that, long hair is a glory to her. Read that again. The bigger a woman's covering, the more glorious it is for her!

Verses 13-15 support verses 5-6, which say that a woman whose head is uncovered is as good as shaven, and that her hair should be "shorn" (verse 6) if she will not wear a covering. And since her hair should be long and not cropped very short, she should also be covered. God's design is for a woman to have two coverings: long hair, and a covering over her natural covering of hair. If she refuses to wear the outer covering, she should have both taken away ("If a woman be not covered, let her also be shorn").

A careful reading of the passage shows that hair is not the issue. Suppose we change the passage to talk about hair instead of a covering:4 Every man praying or prophesying, having hair on his head, dishonoreth his head. 5 But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth without hair on her head dishonoreth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven [had no hair]. 6 For if the woman have not hair, let her hair be shorn: but if it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her have hair. 7 For a man indeed ought not to have hair on his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. How ridiculous! How do you shear the hair off a woman who has none? How could a woman have hair when praying or prophesying, and then get rid of it as soon as she was done? And by the way, that would mean that men should all be bald!

The Greek has two different words for covering. The word "covered" in verse 6 is katakalupto. Katakalupto is defined as 1) to cover up 2) to veil or cover one's and is a verb. The word for "covering" in verse 15 is peribolaion. Peribolaion is defined as:1) a covering thrown around, a wrapper 1a) a mantle 1b) a veil and is a noun. We see from these definitions that the hair is to be a "wrapper" on the head, to cover the head and keep it from being bald. Then there is to be a covering which "covers up" the head. The Bible is talking about two separate coverings. Also, note that it says that the hair is A covering (as it is a noun), not the covering (which is the verb). If God was talking about long hair in verses 4-7, why didn't He say, "Every man who prays or prophesies with long hair dishonors his head...Every woman who prays or prophesies with short hair..."? Also, why would the length of hair be an issue only when praying or prophesying? How could a woman only have long hair when praying or prophesying?
The NIV's erroneous footnote would lead one to believe that the passage can be translated to mean long hair. The note reads:Or 4Every man who prays or prophesies with long hair dishonors his head. 5And every woman who prays or prophesies with no covering [of hair] on her head dishonors her head – she is just like one of the "shorn women." 6If a woman has no covering, let her be for now with short hair, but since it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair shorn or shaved, she should grow it again. 7A man ought not to have long hair...This sounds logical enough. However, let's look at it a bit. First of all, the "with long hair" in verse 4 could possibly be translated that way. The Greek word means "hanging down". But verse 7 cannot say "long hair". The Greek word is katakalupto, "to cover up." It is a different Greek word than in verse 4. Second, notice that even the NIV translators were honest enough to admit that they added the words "of hair" in verse 5. Without that addition, it says "...prays or prophesies with no covering on her head...". And by the way, if she has no covering of hair, she does not have short hair, she has NO HAIR! "Let her be for now with short hair" (verse 6) is not very accurate. Third, the footnote is not a literal translation. (Nor, by the way, is the NIV.) For example:
You cannot literally translate katakalupto to mean, "grow it (the hair) again" (verse 6). The correct reading is "let her be covered." "Let her be for now with short hair" (verse 6) is not correct. The word that, in the KJV, is translated "be shorn" is "A primary verb; to shear" (Strong's Greek Dictionary). It is a command to shear a woman who does not wear a headcovering, not a "It's that way now, so let it go" statement. "She is just like one of the ‘shorn women'" is not literal either. According to the Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, the most literal reading is "for one it is and the same with having been shaven." When you depart from the literal meaning of the Bible, you can make it say anything you want if you just twist it enough.

We see from the above that long hair is not the covering. The Bible is talking about a physical cloth covering that goes OVER long hair. And the NIV footnote (actually, the whole NIV) is a twisted translation that changes the very words of the passage to make them say something else, and the bible has been altered anough by politics not to be altered AGAIN by bad translation.

How did the majority of Christian women come to stop wearing the veil?

During the second Vatican Council, a mob of reporters waited for news after a council meeting. One of them asked Msgr. Annibale Bugnini, then secretary of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship, if women still had to wear a headcover in the churches. His response was that the Bishops were considering other issues, and that women’s veils were not on the agenda.
The next day, the international press announced throughout the world that women did not have to wear the veil anymore. A few days later, Msgr. Bugnini told the press he was misquoted and women must still had to wear the veil. But the Press did not retract the error, and many women stopped wearing the veil as out of confusion and because of pressure from feminist groups.
Before the revision in 1983, Canon law had stated that women must cover their heads "...especially when they approach the holy table" (can.1262.2). But in order to reduce such a growing collection of books, the new version of Canon law was subjected to concise changes. In the process, mention of head coverings was omitted.

In 1970, Pope Paul VI promulgated the Roman Missal, ignoring mention of women’s veils. But at the time the missal was published, it didn’t seem necessary to keep mandatory such an obvious and universal practice, even if it no longer had a "normative" value (Inter insigniores, # 4).
And mention in Canon law or the Roman Missal is not necessary to the continuation of the tradition, for it is rooted in Scripture and has been practiced ever since the early Church. Indeed, Pope John Paul II affirmed that the real sources of Canon law are the Sacred Tradition, especially as reflected in the ecumenical councils, and Sacred Scripture (O.S.V. Catholic Encyclopedia, p. 169). Though the custom has generally lapsed in western cultures, particularly English-speaking nations, it is not erased entirely from the conscience of western Christians. For example; what's the first thing a Catholic mom does when her daughter is preparing for first communion and confirmation? She goes out and buys a veil. Likewise, what's one of the most important accessories to a bridal gown? Why it's the veil of course! Finally, when a baseball game or community event is opened in prayer, regardless of the religious denominations of those in attendance, what's the first thing everybody does? The men all remove their hats, and the women do not. Funny how that works, isn't it. This doesn't just happen by accident. It all goes back to the ancient Christian custom of veiling. Do Any Christian Women Today Cover Their Heads?
It is true that most Christian women do not, and many don't take other teachings of the Bible (against pre-marital sex, adultery, prayer, fasting, diet etc) literally either. However, there do seem to be a growing number of Christian women out there who are committed to following the Bible as it is written, and a few survving perservors of the fundamentals. My grandmother for one, always draped lace shawl over her hair before prayer, and always wore a headdress like above for special Church services and holidays with her hair covered, and on a day to day basis she always wore hats or silk scarves that covered her hair (though not always her neck and never her chest). Below are some webpages that one other sister found that call for Christian women to cover their heads in accordance with the commandment of the Bible. To those so-called Christian women who STILL think that the veil is an obsolete custom, remember that: "Jesus is the same, yesterday and today, yes, and forever" (Heb.13:8).
According to the Scriptures: Headcovering
Biblical Headcovering: The Scarf of Hidden Power
Christian Women's Headcovering Directory
Headcoverings and the Christian Woman
Is a Woman's Hair Her Only Covering?
Let Her Be Veiled
Modesty and Christian Living in the 90s
My Testimony Regarding the Headcovering
Nigerian Catholics told to be modest
No Such Custom?
On the Covering of Heads
She Maketh Herself Headcoverings
Should Christian Women Wear a Headcovering?
The Biblical Practice of Headcovering
The Christian Modesty
The Christian Veiling
The Headcoverings of Sisters
The Rites of Submission
The Significance of the Christian Woman's Veiling
The Veil
Women's Headcovering and the Glory of God